WICHITA, Kansas (KWCH) – When the alarm bells go off at a Wichita fire station, the fire trucks roll out. But what happens when the truck arrives on scene and doesn’t work? According to Ted Bush, president of the Wichita Firefighters Union, that’s exactly what happens.

“If 40% of your trucks are down because of mechanical problems, you have a problem and that’s a concern for us,” Bush said.

In a Facebook post, the union said three of the seven truck companies in Wichita are no longer working. For the fire department, one truck company is a large aerial ladder truck with a platform that costs about $2.1 million.

According to Bush, the problem is not taking a truck out of service for repairs or maintenance.

“We have trucks on our main routes that break down, it happens, we have reserves,” he said. “Now they’re breaking down and we’re running out of options.”

One of the truck companies is at Station 1, one of the busiest fire stations in the country. When the ladder went down for repairs, a backup man replaced it, but he also had problems.

“A 100-foot ladder literally doesn’t work. We have high-rise buildings. For a truck to work, you need a ladder,” Bush said.

He said it has become a problem for the Wichita Fire Department to keep up with the repairs.

“You have to keep these things under control, and we’re not doing that,” Bush said. “We need leadership now, we need to look at this fire department with a fresh eye, that’s all I’m saying. This is just another example.”

12 News has contacted the city of Wichita regarding the specific broken fire truck.

The city said, among other things, that a truck was taken out of service for maintenance on Tuesday afternoon and that “this was done with caution and forward planning to ensure that our community is not at risk at any time.”

“The department has a contingent of reserve vehicles and other stations are placed on alert so that at no time is any part of our city without coverage,” the city of Wichita said.

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